CHRISTMAS EVE

On Christmas eve
Street was lonely but
Ugly Ulster wearing man was still there
Lonely street in coldly night
Almost deadly windy night
Growling like a dead he was still there
Never imagine how cruel our world is
After seeing this I couldn’t bear this
My father my mother all ignored him
Urge me to be far from him
Kaput man is left to die
Heavy snow grave him that night
Everyone celebrated the Christmas night
Roadside houses ignored the man’s life
Jesus observed this silent crime
Everyone celebrated the birthday of the Christ
Ah! this pain is unbearable
Kaput man is left to die
But the birthday of Christ is celebrated all over the night

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Editor’s Note

The number one question our editors receive is—what do the editors and judges look for when judging the contest? The number one answer we give is creativity. Unlike prose, writing composed in everyday language, poetry is considered a creative art and requires a different type of effort and a certain level of depth. Of the thousands of poems entered in each contest, the ones that catch our judges’ eyes are the ones that remove us, even just slightly, from the scope of everyday life by using language that is interesting, specific, vivid, obscure, compelling, figurative, and so on. Oftentimes, poems are pulled aside for a second look based simply on certain words that intrigued the reader. So first and foremost, be sure your poetry is written using creative language. Take general ideas and make them personal. In his infamous book De/Compositions: 101 Good Poems Gone Wrong, W. D. Snodgrass imparts, “We cannot honestly discuss or represent our lives, any more than our poems, without using ideational language.”